I woke at about 9am and went to get breakfast that wasn’t included in my hotel room which is a huge bummer. This was a horrible time to go as the eggs had been cleared out of the heating device that probably has some specific name. I assumed incorrectly that this was going to be re-filled (it wasn’t), but I basically ate a 13 Euro breakfast of bread and fruit. Another drawback of a shitty hotel.

It’s a big hall.

I decided to do some sight seeing and started walking towards the area where the activity was. I started with a massive church where I was immediately scolded for wearing a hat. Then I visited the Residence Museum which was a massive structure that housed rooms from the 1500’s or whenever ancient shit began. The pictures do not do it justice and it was well worth the 10 euro. I then walked to the English Garden which is the #1 attraction on Trip Advisor. I’m a big fan of using Trip Advisor as a structure for what to do. It was ice cold but still picturesque.

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I made my way back to my hotel around this time because I had to drop a deuce and made a critical error. I went up to a food stand to order a brat wurst and I said “Ein Bratwurst, bitte.” I must of come off as an obvious tourist who had no idea how to speak the language because I’m not sure if there is a major difference between ein and eins. Either way, the guy came back to me in English and asked if I wanted ketchup. It was the beginning of the day and the ketchup dispenser must have been loaded with pressure because as I pushed the handle down, it unloaded a massive shot of ketchup that got all over my jacket. Along the entire trip, this was my only critical mistake. I sulked back to the hotel to clean off my jacket.

I recovered from the jacket incident and climbed the stairs to St. Peters which is a tower that overlooks Munich. Well worth the 3 Euro but not exactly incredible. I then started a dull part of my day searching for a highly rated, #2 or #3 on the list, church on Trip Advisor. I entered and it was cool, but not worth the trip. It was 4 pm and I decided that I was going to check out the zoo or Olympic park area before my 6pm beer tour. This is where I’m going to give a major word of warning to public transportation in foreign countries.

What it looks like when you ride the tram the wrong way for 20 minutes.

I googled, “how do I get to the Munich Zoo.” It pointed me to the KarlPlatz station and then the #17 tram. My first problem began when I wasn’t sure if I should take the subway, train, or tram to Karlplatz. I bought a ticket to the subway but nothing pointed to KarlPlatz. I then bought a train ticket where none ran through KarlPlatz to my understanding. Turned out Karlplatz was a 3 minute walk and it was a tram station. At the tram station the #17 ran both ways. I could go in the direction of Ameiliaplatz or Schlosstrasse which was indicated by the directions. HMMMMM. I hopped on the tram and monitored my GPS. After 15 minutes it was clear I had rode in the wrong direction. After this fiasco, I ran out of time and decided to go back to my hotel. I wasn’t pissed by any means but these are the fears of public transport in a language and area you can’t read and I was a bit disappointed I didn’t get to see more.

Well below ground. Now you know where the word well comes from.

I cleaned up and went to the Hofbrauhaus tour for 18 euro. I met up with about 15 other English speaking people, mostly from North America, and they greeted us with a beer. I made friends with a 53 year old global sales manager from Annapolis who had a big beer affinity. We were both football fans and hung together for the rest of the trip making friends with people from Chile, Spain, the Netherlands, and Canada. The one true advantage of the tour was getting a private room in the Augstiner Rathkeller. Something like that. You walk down 50 steps and are in this cellar with liter beers being served. It felt authentic and I enjoyed the back and forth with the people there. The tour quit around 10pm and I had an early morning flight the next night so I couldn’t hang around with the group. Fun day all around.

I took one picture of a lot of chairs and it demonstrates a German mindset to organization and efficiency. I thought it was cool.